An interview with Ruby Rose

Australians have been privy to the talent that is Ruby Rose since 2008, when she won a contest to become an MTV VJ. The model-turned-television personality became a household name when she took more presenting gigs, started a fashion label and became an all-around multi-tasker, juggling DJ sets and becoming the face of Maybelline with advocacy, all the while attempting to maintain romantic relationships. Ruby said that this has ultimately been kind of impossible, as she’s a constant traveler, and has now relocated to Los Angeles to broaden her proverbial horizons.

All photos by Lindsey Byrnes

“I’ve been meaning to make the move for about a year and a half,” Ruby told me. “But I love being back home with my friends and my family and so many different job opportunities, so it was always kind of like ‘Yeah, I’ll move, I’ll move,’ but always something would come up and I’d want to do that. So it was just about me kind of going ‘alright, I can either stay in Australia and do that forever or I can move to the States for a little bit and see what happens.”

Since Ruby has had her in hand in all kinds of pots, it’s not that she’s going to be doing anything too different in the U.S. as much as she hopes to reach a new audience.

“I love everything I do back home, but at the same time, it’s like I have been doing it for five years and pretty much everything I’ve wanted to achieve back home, I’ve been lucky enough and been blessed enough to experience,” Ruby said. “It’s cool because all the lessons you learn as you go along in the industry, I learned those pretty quickly, I’m glad I’ve done all that at home, so here I can hone on what I really want to do and not spread myself too thin.”

Ruby has been out as a lesbian since she was 12 years old, and she has never shied away from being out in the public eye. She said the only time she was advised not to be out was when she first auditioned with MTV.

“[At the beginning], MTV didn’t know I was gay at all,” she said. “I mean, I wasn’t asked. Somehow it came out and I was like “That wasn’t so hard,’ and they were kind of like ‘If you get asked, kind of steer away from it a little while just so you can establish yourself as a presenter and a VJ and before people get too crazy with it.’ And I said ‘Yeah, yeah I get that, but if I”m asked, I don’t want to lie about it.”

And she doesn’t, which means that Ruby’s presence in the Aussie tabloids are often prefaced with the descriptive “lesbian,” which doesn’t bother Ruby as much when it might be relevant. The thing is, a lot of the time, it isn’t.

“Some of the time, I feel like it’s so unnecessary — it’s already a non-article. If it’s like ‘Ruby was seen with a friend having coffee and she identifies as a lesbian,’ it’s like, that’s not even an article! Come on — writing that I’m a lesbian before my name doesn’t make it more interesting,” Ruby said. “Why does everything have to be about Ruby being a lesbian? If I’m at a gay rally and it’s about gay marriage or something that actually involves my relationships — ‘Celbridyke’ and what’s the other one? ‘Celesbian.’ It’s sort of derogatory when it shouldn’t be because I’m proud of it and I embrace it.”